Today’s broadcast (Tuesday, April 24, 2007) of The Story (American Public Media) revisits unschooling, allowing Kate Walsh, former teacher and critic of unschooling, an opportunity to address her concerns about not sending children to school, in response to The Story’s original broadcast on unschooling (February 21, 2007) . Host Dick Gordon also invites Valerie Fitzenreiter, who unschooled her daughter Laurie Chancey and appeared on the original broadcast, to return to answer Wash’s criticisms. (Unschooled Laurie is now pursuing her PhD in sociology, without the benefit of GED or high school diploma).

Walsh’s criticisms of unschooling will be familiar to all homeschoolers, who’ve heard it all before. The Story’s website notes that she “was less than enthusiastic about the idea of unschooling”:

“How charming, for people who don’t need, or dismiss the aspect of, general education.”

Whether you are an unschooler, unschool-ish, or a homeschooler of any other stripe, both broadcasts — the original “School? Not” and “Unschooling Revisited” — are well worth listening to online.

You’ll also want to follow the links to Chancey’s website and Fitzenreiter’s book, The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School.